The Knowhere Guide

Inside Information in Wigan, Greater Manchester*

Wigan, Greater Manchester Hookup Spots and Stuff Only Locals Know

Hook-up Spots (That hallowed spot where everyone hangs around with their mates dreaming of the time when they can get into the pubs or clubs - a bench, a corner: you name it.)

• the bus stop- get straight on the 395 to skem and dont turn back
• Bus station
• None but stay away from ince and scholes. Full of no respect kids and drugs. Knock the place down. Full of single mothers
• central Park - In the old days the team were great also.
• Platt Bridge - there have been a few mentions of it as a hook-up on this board. And hook-up you shall! With drug-users, hookERS, thugs, loudmouthed 12 year olds hammered on cheap wine threatening each passerby with their empty bottle if they don't give them a fag. If this is your type of scene, get down there fast!! {hopefully any self respecting person will not - i mispent a small portion of my youth in this area *hangs head in shame*}
• waiting for harold to open the doors of the 'bull' up there on coopers row. a haven for us bikers, RIP Harold E.P.
• moor road park in orrell... full of chavs mostly but good for saturday afternoon half pissed kickaround
• standish youth club and ashfield park
• Somerfield standish.
• we meet up at a local jump spot our team members made were also on the web www.teamrsa.tk
• mesnes park is great in summer. teenagers from miles around gather to get drunk (or stoned if thats ur style). Cafe Nirvana for all u underaged rockers too (only tuesday and thursday tho)
• VG shop in whelley around the corner asking people to go in shop! or outside ince spar hanging around with the bar lot! now go round wigan sometimes though! also wigan park is ok for a shag in the bushes! everyone hangs around there again!
• King Street on Boxing Day, Fancy Dress can't fail to pull.
• The little seated area near the Wiend and the John Bull is the most scenic part of Wigan Town centre. It's like being on the continent or something. It would be better if not for the sodding pigeons.
• WIGAN PIER IS GOOD BUT THE WIGAN PIER ALBUM IS EVEN BETTRE SO DONT LEAVE WITHOUT 1 NEVER MIND PULLING SOMEONE I WAS DOING FINE WITH JUST MY CD
• The Volex on Leigh Road Tamar shops Labour Club BOWLING GREEN!!
• front of woolies (top of standishgate) to meet your date on monday.you know the one you met on friday night movies night club!
• The bloody shop in the bus station duh!
• The walkabout in wigan as the Australian barmaids are more than helpful!!!I should know as a ex-wiganer in Australia with a barmaid!!!!!Oh yeh and son!!
• winstanly shops!!!!!!
• the bus station
• THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH PLATT WAZZ IT IS THE BEST PLACE GOIN AFTA STANDISH. AND THE BEST THING ABOUT PLATT WAZZ IS THERE IS A MACDONALDS AND A VERY SEXY STUD OF A LAD
• The West Ward Labour Club no longer there.It's as flat as pancake
• Billinge,nr wigan is great! I live there and I hang round with the village lot because Im 15, n thats what u do at that age. Teenagers wear tracky bottoms and Rockport cos itz fashion, like platforms and flares were when all u adults were young! We only get in to trouble cos we have nowhere to go and when we do find a place to hang round, within 5 minutes the pigs have moved us! We get in to trouble when we talk loudly past all the old grannies bedtime (7pm!), they call the bizzies n they come and warn us theN us! We drink at weekends and wednesdays cos its something to do, n we dress up and go to older clubs on weekends 4 fun (no clubs mentioned 4 obvious reasons!). We might cause trouble and get into fights but us Billinge lot stick up 4 our village and look out 4 eachother, something dat most adults wont do! Us girls in Billinge r treated badly, we get called 'The Billinge slappers', by most of the other villages round st helens and Wigan, and our lads r called 'The Billinge dick'eds' r 'Thugs' by every1 but were not we r just living like any (normal) 13 - 18 year olds do. Just cos were not gimpy bookworms who get on with all the teachers in school doesnt mean we r trouble causin little rouges! O.K!
• Want to know about the real wigan??? Go to www.outbred.cjb.net NOW!
• Balcarres Arms is in Haigh not Aspul(l)- them Spiller's try to claim owt what's good, t'other ones in Wigan. Aspull only has roads [4-out of it] 2 to Blackrod,1 to Wigan, 1 to Bolton
• Unfortunately, since the demise of Almonds Brewery and the Saracen's Head I am unable to take up your kind invitation to buy you pint in recognition of your site on the grounds that I would not offer you inferior goods and chocolate bars are bad for you according to avant garde school experts!
• nowt-go to st helens,its well better
• The big circle plaza thing at the top of standishgate reet near the buz station an train stations
• winstanley shops, we used to hang around the show house at pony dick as well
• winstanly shops, everyone from everywhere end up there on a friday and saturday night before gettin moved by the police. have a trek up and ask for coombsy, huffy, wilcock, matty, elmsy,gemma, donna, jane or stacey. cum up and av a drink wi us!!!!!!!!
• K - If you're into punk/ska/rock/metal - The Tudor House Hotel, close to the bus station and accross from the college (Parsons Walk) Proper rockers pub.
• Anywhere. Always plenty of smashed, bigmouthed airheads around. See above posts for proof.
• The galleries. Full of spotty teenagers with bubble jackets and/or spice girl shoes gawping at shoppers on the elevators
• I remember when we used to climb over the back of the Doctors in Aspull and 'kip rough'. Drinking what was left in the part empty bottles from the labour club
• When we were nippers, we used to hang around the park near Scot Lane. There, we learned to use our new-found literacy skills by carving naughty words on the slides and swings!
• Shell corner in billinge, you say? yeah, i've seen the little rascals, i've had chips thrown at my car by them while my mate tried to use the cash machine... big mistake!!!!
• Showing my age, I was born in Wigan which was (and still is for me) in LANCASHIRE. None of your Greater Manchester rubbish here, ta!! 1957 was a good year!! One of my childhood pleasures was hanging around Malley's cobbler's shop in Wallgate.....drunk on the smell of leather. Otherwise was the REAL 'Robin Park' (ie Alexandra Park off Ormskirk Road). Another nostral flaring pong wafted over there from Rathbones bakery, filling up the empty bellies of children chucking themselves down the slide etc. Then of course the FAMOUS Wigan Fair on the old bus station and yet another gastronomic treat from the black pea stall....yum yum....followed by huge billowing clouds of pink candy floss. Didn't taste like the crap you buy now.
• Well when I was of that age in the late 80's/early 90's it was Winstanley shops for for posh people of the town. Dibble move you on all the time, but give a kid a bottle of Mez and can of Super Strength and this is the place to be!!!!
• Parish church yard getting hammered on Happy Shopper lemonade and Courvoisier (£3.99) Vodka before staggering into the Tudor
• Ashton tennis park and ashton flower park! Everyone goes there when they are 'underage' hanging around in their tracky bottoms thinking they are cool - anyone who is anyone goes there! Well they did 3 years ago!
• The car park of Robinsons horsey-goods store in Ashton is the place. Full of sad pathetic 17-year olds with a clapped out, rusty RS-Turbo and a moustache like an earwig! Aiming to attract 12 and 13 year old for a bit of 'How's your father,' cos no-one over 15 will take them seriously!!
• Alans
• Chapel End Field, where Wigan's wrestling collective go to powerbomb each other, then chill at the end of a long summer's night, nursing those broken bones
• why has no one mentioned ashton-in-makerfield? every bus stop in the place is teeming with girls in trackies and lads in rockports on a friday night trying to get you to buy them cigs or a bottle from the golden lion. the parks are also full of kids drinking cider too.
• I would just like to point out that Park High in Hindley is not a good place to hang out,as this is a residential area and the noise and trouble by gangs of 20 plus kids aged 13 and up out till at least 11pm, drinking etc is getting ridiculous.We dont mind every once in a while, but every night?!Also the police are round moving them on(what seems like every 2 minutes.I appreciate there is nowhere for them to go cetainly not in Hindley, without annoying someone,but advising them to hang out round the Park Centre is not a good idea unless they want to get arrested or taken home by the police,which is what is going to start happening soon as the police are not going to keep wasting their time and resources just moving kids on,when i`m sure they have more important things to deal with. I have full sympathy for the kids so if anyone has any info or advice on setting up some sort of club or hang out for them,or knows the best way to go about this,or any other relevent suggestions it will be appreciated.thanks.
• Shell corner in Billinge, where teenage thugery blossoms.
• Platt Bridge is ok if your into finding syringes on the floor and seeing a never ending stream of girls wearing the same tracksuit outfits with pony tails sprouting from the tops of their heads... but thats it.. I used to live in Ince and should know....
• Outside Mortgage Matters in Kenyon Road.
• Let's face it you have to feel sorry for those who have chosen a life of hanging around outside supermarkets in Standish - Gateway and Co-op for two.
• Platt Bridge
• I know you said "not pubs and clubs" But you just have to include the Balcarres Arms at Aspul. It has the best landlady and landlord in the whole of Wigan, (Chriss & Mal Horrocks) It's fantastic for sitting and meeting people before you go on to your real destination.
• go to the tudor house
• Park High in Hindley AMF Superbowl in Wigan
• Gotta be Mesnes Park, scene of the first Verve single cover shoot if I'm not mistaken. Or of course by the stewad with the dodgy teeth on the popular side at Springfield Park
• Try Alans!

The Knowhere Guide started out as a list of places to skateboard in the UK. It is a compilation of (unedited) information and views supplied by users like yourself. It is not a conventional tourist guide!

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Credits

Last updated: 2008-04-03